Rice is a major food crop under cultivation since 2,500 BC. An exploration was organized to collect rice genetic resources from eight districts of Karnataka resulting in sampling 111 accessions of diverse specialty landraces which include scented, medicinal, nutritionally superior and genotypes having potential sources of resistance/ tolerance to different biotic and abiotic stresses. Though traditional landraces contributed genes towards unprecedented increase in yield and tolerance to pests and diseases to the present high yielding varieties, however, currently they are under severe threat of replacement. A total of 143 rice landraces under on-farm cultivation during early nineties in the districts of Belagaavi, Dharawada, Haveri and Uttara Kannada could not be recollected due to genetic erosion as these traditional varieties are no longer under cultivation. However, surprisingly only 17 landraces are still under continuous patronage of the farming communities for their adaptability, stability, quality traits and livelihood reasons. A total of 25 new landraces which were not collected earlier could be augmented due to intensive surveying. The present article briefly narrates the nuances of exploration, information on landraces with special traits, local preferences, startling factors for on-farm sustainability of certain landraces, cultivation practices, conservation strategies and potential for utilization in breeding programmes.

The reference evapotranspiration calculation is important to find out the evaporative demand of the atmosphere. It is not dependent on crop types, development and management practices. Various methods are available to estimate reference evapotranspiration (ETâ‚€) from standard meteorological observations. The Penman-Monteith method is considered to be the most physical and reliable method and is often used as a standard to verify other empirical methods[1].In this study, the values of Reference Evapotranspiration ETo by FAO Penman-Montieth equation, CROPWAT 8.0 software, and Pan evaporimeter data for the period of June 2015 to May 2016 Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Kumulur, Trichy was compared. The calculation of ET0 with FAO Penmann Monteith method was done in Excel and the values of ET0 varied from 4.5mm/day to 6.21 mm/day. The ETo value was 3.93mm/day to 6.16 mm/day when calculated through CROPWAT 8.0 software. The ETo value for using the Pan Evaporimeter data varied from 2.2mm/day to 6.7 mm/day. ETo values calculated from the three methods were compared and shown in graphical format.

Raising healthy seedlings under good nursery management practices is an important part of successful vegetable production. Seedling tray technology was developed for the efficient production of high-quality seedlings for transplanting. The technology was introduced into Korea in 1992, and has now become an important industry. Modern technologies are important mainly for the mass production of vegetable seedlings, which were transplanted into greenhouses or the open field. The quality of the growing media used in seedling tray is largely influenced by physical, chemical and biological properties of the growing media. The main purpose of raising seedlings in protected structure is to produce quality and disease free seedlings in off season to raise early crop in protected condition or open field condition to get higher profit.

The coffee plant is a woody perennial dicotyledon of the genus Coffea (Rubiaceae) consisting of over 80 species, out of which only two species are important for production of coffee beans – Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (Coffea canephora). Coffee cultivation provides livelihood for nearly 1.5 million families. Coffee has proven to be highly sensitive to climate change. Temperature and rainfall are the conditions considered to be important in defining potential coffee yield under changing climate. The studies were under taken at Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI), Coffee Research Station, Chikkamagaluru district, Karnataka, INDIA to assess the changes in weather pattern particularly on temperature and rainfall and its influence on coffee growth and development. To understand the change in climate and impact of weather parameters four decades of historical weather data were collected from meteorological observatory of the station and analysis were done by standard statistical procedure. Observations on photosynthetic parameters, berry development (Dry weight basis) and extension growth was recorded and assessed in marked plants at fortnightly intervals in arabica and robusta coffee cultivars at CCRI. Trendline analysis of weather parameters for four decades indicated increase in quantum of annual rainfall with change in distribution pattern, raise in both mean maximum and minimum temperature across coffee growing tracts of Western Ghats. The extreme climatic condition and mono shade affected the physiological processes like photosynthetic efficiency and carboxylation efficiency which lead to reduced instantaneous water use efficiency in coffee plants. Studies on coffee berry growth pattern indicated wide variations in growth pattern in robusta coffee indicating more vulnerability of robusta coffee for climate changes like excess deviation of rainfall. The observations confirmed that the peak period of vegetative growth in coffee is postponed by 15 to 20 days compared to earlier years due to changing monsoon rain fall pattern and rise in temperature. To mitigate this some of the strategies such as better water harvesting structures, improved and rationalized fertilizer use, adequate shade pattern with more diversification, improved soil conservation techniques, uses of plant growth regulators and nutrient sprays could be employed to get maximum crop production under present climate change scenarios.

The study was carried out in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh to find out the adoption level of scientific management practices of dairy animals. A random sample of 240 buffalo owners were selected from six blocks of the district and adoption percentage of scientific milking, calf rearing and housing management practices were studied. It was found that washing of milking pans and hands before milking (86.75%), regularity in making hours (79.00%) and milking at clean and separate place (78.00%) were more adopted by the respondents in milking management practices. The overall adoption of milking management practices was 56.09 percent. Regarding adoption of scientific calf rearing practices, it was observed that proper cleaning of mucous from mouth and nostrils (71.63%), colostrums feeding to newly born calves within one to two hours after birth (65.88%) and cutting and disinfection of naval cord (56.25%) were more adopted by the buffalo owners. The overall adoption of calf rearing management practices was 38.95 percent. In adoption of housing management practices, it was revealed that adequate floor space in the buffalo shed (80.63%), proper orientation of buffalo shed (51.00%) and pucca manger with optimum dimension (43.75%) were moderately adopted by the buffalo owners. The overall adoption of housing management practices was 47.14 percent. The study showed that adoption level of milking management practices was more satisfactory in comparison to calf rearing and housing management practices.